Matthew Henry on Isaiah 36:1-10
We shall here only observe some practical lessons. 1. A people may be in the way of their duty and yet meet with trouble and distress. Hezekiah was reforming, and his people were in some measure reformed; and yet their country is at that time invaded and a great part of it laid waste. Perhaps they began to grow remiss and cool in the work of reformation, were doing it by halves, and ready to sit down short of a thorough reformation; and then God visited them with this judgment, to put life into them and that good cause. We must not wonder if, when we are doing well, God sends afflictions to quicken us to do better, to do our best, and to press forward towards perfection. 2. That we must neve…
Read the whole note in the consoleJamieson-Fausset-Brown on Isaiah 36:5
counsel--Egypt was famed for its wisdom.
John Gill on Isaiah 36:5
I say, (sayest thou,) but they are but vain words,.... Or, "word of lips" (f); meaning the following, which he suggests were only the fruit of his lips, not of his heart; or were vain and foolish, and without effect, and stood for nothing; so the first part of the words are Hezekiah's, "I say (sayest thou)"; and the latter, Rabshakeh's note upon them; though they may be understood as Hezekiah's, or what he is made to speak by Rabshakeh, as the ground of his confidence, namely, "word of lips"; that is, prayer to God, as Kimchi explains it; or eloquence in addressing his soldiers, and encouraging them to fight, either of which Rabshakeh derides, as well as what follows:
I have counsel and str…
Read the whole note in the consoleJohn Calvin on Isaiah 36:5
I have said (only a word of the lips.) In the sacred history (2 Kings 18:20) the word employed is, Thou hast said This may be explained as a declaration what kind of courage Rabshakeh thinks that Hezekiah possesses; as if he had said, "Such are thy deliberations." In this passage the use of the first person, "I have said," does not alter the sense; because Rabshakeh, as if he had examined the counsels of Hezekiah and fully understood them all, ironically reproaches him; "I see what thou art thinking, but they are words of the lips." This passage is explained in various ways. Some interpret it, "Thou sayest, that thou hast not merely words of the lips," that is, "Thou boastest that thou excel…
